The package of reports, statements and appendices in connection with the submission to the Financial Supervision Commission of the periodic reports of the insurance brokers as of 30.06.2021, on the grounds of Art. 311, para. 3, item 2, in connection with para. 4 of the Insurance Code has been updated.

In connection with the above, the completion of the above reports and statements, and their submission through the electronic portal of the FSC, must begin after downloading the mandatory updated format (version 30.06.2021), published on the FSC website at:

www.fsc.bg, section “Administrative documents”, subsection “Forms and templates”, “Insurance market”.

IMPORTANT:

Attachments must meet the following conditions:

• The main file containing the reference package according to Appendices 2.1-2.8 and 3.1-3.4 with basic information must be in .xls format (Microsoft Excel 2003);
• The content of the main file with basic information must be filled in according to the templates approved by the Financial Supervision Commission, observing all rules for data validity (these rules are not part of this instruction and can be downloaded from the Financial Supervision Commission website) ;
• The name of the main file with basic information must be formatted according to the rules set by the Financial Supervision Commission;
• Appendix No. 1 shall be filled in according to the attached template contained in the reference package, the information must be in .xls format;
• Files must be signed with a universal electronic signature in p7m or p7s format (PKCS # 7), and encryption should NOT be used when signing;
• The signature on the files must belong to the same employee who logged in the system.

 In connection with the frequent inquiries regarding the determination of the amount of pensions from universal pension funds (the so-called “second pension”) and given the high public interest in the adoption and alignment of regulations with amendments to the Social Insurance Code governing the payment of pensions from the universal pension funds, promulgated in the State Gazette, 19 / 5 March 2021, the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) provides the following clarifications:

 The Social Insurance Code (SIC) specifies the types of pension products and the obligations of pension insurance companies in relation to their payment and guarantees. The determination of the amount of the supplementary lifelong old-age pension from the universal pension funds is regulated at the legal level and is determined on the basis of the following 3 components:

1. the funds under the individual account of the insured person

 The information on the accumulations on the individual accounts of the persons insured in the universal pension funds is kept by the pension insurance companies. The insured person has the right to receive at any time information about the current state of the accumulated funds in their individual account. Regardless of the chosen type of payment – one-off, deferred or lifelong, for determining the initial amount of the pension, all funds on the individual account of the person at the time of concluding the pension contract are taken into account.

2. the table of mortality and average life expectancy, published by the National Statistical Institute

 The table for mortality and life expectancy of the National Statistical Institute is publicly available information available on the Institute’s website and is updated according to the statistical information calendar. Using a single table of mortality and calculating the pensions from universal pension funds by single formulas ensures the same way of calculating the pensions of all persons, regardless of the fund in which they are insured.

3. technical interest rate

 When calculating the amount of pensions, a technical interest rate is used, which reflects the expectations for the return on investment of pensioners’ funds. Its specific amount is determined by each pension insurance company in compliance with the regulatory requirements.

 In this regard, the FSC adopted the Ordinance on Technical Interest Rates and Formulas for Calculating Supplementary Lifetime Pensions for Old Age and the Ordinance on Reserves of Pension Insurance Companies for Guaranteeing the Gross Amount of Contributions to Universal Pension Funds Related to Calculating the Supplementary Lifetime Pension for Old Age. As a result, pension insurance companies have the necessary information and can perform forecast calculations and consult their clients.

 With regard to the deadlines for exercising the right of persons to choose social insurance:

 Persons who, up to and including 30 June 2021, have less than 5 years until the retirement age and who have not been granted a pension for length of service and age, may, once, until 30 June 2021, exercise the right to choose to change their insurance from a universal pension fund to the state social insurance.

 From 01 January 2022, other deadlines for exercising this right apply:

 – from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2025 – not later than 1 year before the age under Art. 68, para. 1;

 – from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2030 – not later than 2 years before the age under Art. 68, para. 1;

 – from 1 January 2031 to 31 December 2035 – not later than 3 years before the age under Art. 68, para. 1;

 – from 1 January 2036 to 31 December 2037 – not later than 4 years before the age under Art. 68, para. 1;

 – after 1 January 2038 – not later than 5 years before the age under Art. 68, para. 1

Pursuant to Council of Ministers Decision No. 441 of 04.06.2021 and published list of persons who fall or could fall within the scope of sanctions imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) by the United States Department of the Treasury, the Financial Supervision Commission informs that:

 has no relations with persons included in the list under item 1 of Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 441 of 04.06.2021

 in accordance with its legal powers and the current regulatory requirements it observes and is ready to assist the competent authorities under item 1 of Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 441 of 04.06.2021 on the persons included in the scope of inspections.

The FSC emphasizes that in its supervisory practice it will continue to take all legally regulated and necessary measures to preserve the stability of the capital market and the non-banking financial sector as a whole, prevention of illegal practices leading to damage to the confidence of the investment community.

The data presented from the reports of insurers in non-life and life insurance at the end of February 2021 are summarized and published on the FSC website – www.fsc.bg, section “Insurance activity”, “Statistics”.

The data presented from the reports of insurers in non-life and life insurance at the end of January 2021 are summarized and published on the FSC website – www.fsc.bg, section “Insurance activity”, “Statistics”.

The Financial Supervision Commission adopted on a second vote an Ordinance on the technical interest rates under Art. 169, para. 1, item 3 and para. 8, item 3 of the Social Insurance Code and the formulas for calculating the supplementary lifelong old-age pensions after a repeated public consultation.

With the Act to Amend and Supplement the Social Insurance Code (promulgated SG No. 19/2021), regulating the payment of pensions for insurance in a universal pension fund, the legislator instructed the Financial Supervision Commission to determine by ordinance the formulas for their calculation, as well as the requirements to the technical interest rates for determining their amount and the pensions from the occupational pension funds.

The formulas for calculating the supplementary lifelong old-age pensions provided for in the ordinance are based on established provisions in actuarial science and practice. Defining uniform formulas for pensions from universal pension funds ensures the same way of calculating the pensions of all persons, regardless of the fund in which they are insured. The formulas provided in the ordinance make it possible to determine the amount of the pension on the basis of the transferred gross contributions or on the basis of the higher amount of funds in the individual account in accordance with the possibilities provided by law. Regardless of the chosen type of guarantee for determining the initial amount of the pension, all funds on the individual account of the person at the time of concluding the pension contract are taken into account. The formulas also allow, depending on the agreement between the pensioner and the pension insurance company, that the pension be determined both at the time of concluding the pension contract and from an earlier or later time (e.g. from the moment of acquiring the right to a pension or from at a later date if the pensioner wishes to continue working after the conclusion of the pension contract). The regulation of the formulas in a regulatory act provides clarity and legal certainty in the relations between the pension insurance companies and the pensioners, facilitates the future pensioners in planning their income after retirement and increases the transparency and trust in the activity of supplementary pension insurance.

When calculating the amount of pensions, a technical interest rate is used, which reflects the expectations for the return on investment of pensioners’ funds. The specific amount of the technical interest rate is determined by each pension insurance company in compliance with the prescribed regulatory requirements and is approved by the Financial Supervision Commission. The ordinance requires pension insurance companies to adhere to the precautionary principle when determining the specific amounts of technical interest rates in order to reduce the risk of shortage of funds for future payments, as adopted in actuarial practice. According to the legal delegation, the ordinance also regulates the maximum amounts of technical interest rates. In this regard, it is envisaged that the technical interest rate for determining the supplementary lifelong old-age pension may not be higher than the long-term interest rate for assessing the degree of convergence published by the Bulgarian National Bank (average for the last seven years). The indicator used is determined on the basis of the yield on long-term government securities, which according to the Social Insurance Code must be taken into account when determining the technical interest rate. With regard to pensions from occupational pension funds, the same indicator was used to set the maximum technical interest rate, setting a wider range (150 per cent of the long-term interest rate for assessing the degree of convergence) given the differences in their activities and investments. In both cases, the technical interest rate may not be less than zero.

 At its meeting held on 15.06.2021, the Financial Supervision Commission decided under Protocol No. 42 of 15.06.2021 to conduct examinations for acquiring the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments and as an investment adviser and set dates for these examinations on 25.09.2021 (Saturday) and 26.09.2021 (Sunday), respectively, approved the Procedure for conducting examinations for acquiring the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments or as an investment adviser, Thematic syllabus for the examination for acquiring the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments and Thematic syllabus for the examination for acquiring the right to exercise activity as an investment adviser. The syllabi and the procedure for conducting examinations for acquiring the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments or as an investment adviser are published on the official website of the Financial Supervision Commission, in the section “Supervised persons”, “Legal capacity examinations”, “Examinations for broker of financial instruments and investment adviser”.

We draw the attention of the candidates that at a meeting of the FSC on 27.05.2021 a new Ordinance No. 7 on the procedure for acquisition, recognition and revocation of legal capacity of brokers of financial instruments and investment advisers was adopted, which repeals the current Ordinance No. 7.

Templates of applications for admission to the examination and of the required declarations have been prepared as appendices to the new Ordinance No. 7. The persons who wish to acquire the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments and / or as an investment adviser, according to Art. 10, para. 1 of Ordinance No. 7 shall submit applications for admission to an examination according to a template with the content under Art. 10, para. 2 of Ordinance No. 7 in the office of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) or online at delovodstvo@fsc.bg. The documents according to Art. 10, para. 3 of Ordinance № 7, which are explicitly indicated in the template need to be attached to the application.

Templates of applications for admission to examinations and the required declarations are available on the FSC website.

The documents for the examinations, which will be held on 25 September 2021 (Saturday) and 26 September 2021 (Sunday), are submitted in the period from 21 June 2021 (Monday) to 16 August 2021 (Monday) inclusive.

The application must indicate the e-mail address to which messages on the open procedure for admission to the examination will be sent.

Applications for admission to the examination for acquiring the right to exercise activity as a broker of financial instruments or as an investment adviser, submitted after the announced deadline for submission of applications for admission to the upcoming examinations will not be considered.

The Financial Supervision Commission considered and adopted at the first vote a draft Ordinance amending Ordinance No. 63 of 8 November 2018 on the requirements for the content, periodicity of preparation and deadlines for submission of reports for supervisory purposes of pension insurance companies and the funds managed by them. The project aims to comply with the amendments made to the Act to Amend and Supplement the Social Insurance Code (promulgated SG No. 19/2021).

Art. 185 of the Social Insurance Code stipulates that the requirements for the content, periodicity of preparation and deadlines for submission of reports for supervisory purposes of the payment funds are regulated by an ordinance of the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC). In this regard, the draft ordinance provides for the creation of templates of monthly and annual reports for the payments funds of lifelong pensions and the payment funds, which are submitted to the FSC. The reports are expected to be submitted within the same deadlines as the reports for supervisory purposes of the pension insurance companies and the supplementary pension funds. The adopted approach is to present the reports to the supervisory body in electronic form, signed with a qualified electronic signature, through an electronic portal maintained by the FSC. In accordance with the amendments to the SIC, the current models of reports for supervisory purposes have been updated.

The draft and the reasons for it are published on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission in the section Regulations, subsection Public Consultations, and the deadline for submitting comments and proposals on the draft is 14 days from its publication until 29.06.2021 inclusive.

The Financial Supervision Commission considered and adopted at the first vote a draft Ordinance to amend and supplement Ordinance No. 31 of 02.08.2006 on the terms and procedure for conducting an examination and for recognizing the legal capacity of a responsible actuary, for recognizing the legal capacity acquired outside the Republic of Bulgaria, for the form of the actuarial certification, the form and content of the actuarial report and the references under the Insurance Code which the responsible actuary certifies, as well as for the form and mandatory content of the annual actuarial report under the Social Insurance Code, in order to bring it in line with the changes made with the Act to Amend and Supplement the Social Insurance Code (promulgated SG No. 19/2021).

The ordinance updates the requirements to the annual actuarial report for each supplementary pension fund and its annexes in view of the changes in the legal level, providing for the payment of supplementary lifelong old-age pensions and deferred payments in case of acquired pension rights to be made by separate payment funds, not from universal pension funds. In connection with the establishment of the funds for payment of lifelong pensions and the funds for deferred payments, the obligatory content of the actuarial reports prepared for these funds is regulated. This provides the necessary information on the state of the payment funds and ensures their proper functioning to meet the obligations to pensioners, persons receiving deferred payments and their heirs and the supervision of this activity.

The draft and the reasons for it are published on the website of the Financial Supervision Commission in the section Regulations, subsection Public Consultations, and the deadline for submitting comments and proposals on the draft is 14 days from its publication until 29.06.2021 inclusive.

 The Social Insurance Supervision Department of the Financial Supervision Commission announced the results of the change of participation and transfer of funds of insured persons from one to another respective pension fund for the first quarter of 2021. The data were obtained on the basis of reports submitted by pension insurance companies to the Financial Supervision Commission.

In the first quarter of 2021, a total of 86,285 applications for change of participation and transfer of funds from one pension fund to another were submitted to the pension insurance companies.

A total of 74,471 insured persons from the applications submitted in the first quarter of 2021 have changed their participation in the supplementary pension insurance funds. The total amount of the funds transferred to another pension fund of the respective type is BGN 280,877,588.

Results of the change in the participation and transfer of funds from one to another respective pension fund for the first quarter of 2021 are available in section: Social Insurance activity / Statistics / Statistics and analysis / 2021.